Blaze leaves seven homeless
PHUKET TOWN: A fire in a two-story shophouse on Phuket Rd this morning caused about 2 million baht baht damage and left seven people homeless. Firefighters took 45 minutes to extinguish the blaze while officers from Phuket Town Police Station redirected traffic at the nearby intersection with Ong Sim Phai Rd. Buildings on either side of the fire sustained minor damage. The fire was reported at about 11 am by ground-floor tenant Pradit Boonma, 34, who lives with his wife and boy and runs a small restaurant at the front of the building. K. Pradit said, “I was on the ground floor with my wife, when I heard something drop very loudly onto the floor above. Then I heard the old woman upstairs [Sakorn Thipsong] shout ‘Fire! Fire!’. I went upstairs to help her out and then called the fire brigade.” K. Sakorn, 56, said, “I heard something drop onto the floor in [neighbor] K. Dee’s room while I was sleeping. I could smell something burning so I knocked and then opened Dee’s room to see fire burning everything.” K. Pradit met her at the top of the stairs and helped her out of the building. K. Dee was downstairs making desserts and the other two upstairs tenants were at work during the blaze. When asked where she will live now, K. Sakorn replied with a worried look, “I don’t know.” Faulty wiring was the likely cause of the fire, said Pol Col Paween Pongsirin of Phuket Town Police Station. He added that investigating officers were keen to speak with the owner of the building.
